KAGIN'S COLUMN

ON POLITICALLY CORRECT SPEECH

Is it okay to dislike or hate certain categories of our fellow human beings? Can one loathe and say so concerning Negroes, Caucasians, Orientals, Aborigines, Christians, Jews, Atheists, Nazis, Irish, Poles, Gays, the poor, the rich, those with physical, cultural or mental differences? The list of those others despise and ridicule is limited only by the unempathetic imagination of the detractor. Is it legal to hold and express wildly bigoted assumptions concerning people not like you? Sure it is. That's why we have a First Amendment to our Constitution guaranteeing free speech in a free society. Take away these guarantees and we have destroyed the Constitutional promise of "the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." Is it polite to direct terms of denigration to others? Of course not, or maybe, depending upon how disgusting certain beliefs and behavior may be, from your perspective, to you and those who agree with you. Open debate is the mortar of freedom. Some arguments against some causes carry such moral imperatives that politeness in their expression would appear a compromise with evil. Other arguments are so monstrous in their ignorance that a rational hearer recoils. You only get your First Amendment Medal when you support the right of some lunatic to say things about others that offend to the bedrock of your humanity. The law properly forbids and punishes harmful behavior directed toward others, but speech is protected.

Should we educate future generations to develop tolerance and empathy toward people who are culturally or physically different? We have to. It is part of our evolution. We either get along or watch civilization dissolve in tribal wars.

Colleges and universities are the logical centers for nurturing a new sensitivity wherein we can learn from our diversity. Within many of these institutions, "politically correct" idiom is being employed to not offend those who are different. Terms are employed that remove any stigma of fault concerning status or condition. Thus, I should no longer view some stupid client who has dysfunctionally ruined his life and others as an "ignorant hillbilly," but as one who is, let's see, say "gene pool challenged."

There is in this newspeak the risk of throwing out the baby with the bath. Institutions should encourage greater sensitivity through education and example. But they are imposing on the students their views of politically correct speech, under prescription of administrative punishment for speaking incorrectly. This is dangerous. Freedom of speech and thought is more important than not hurting someone's feelings. Censorship is anathema to education. With this background, I offer the following:

POLITICAL CORRECTION

When ignorant and barbarous thought
Chained the human mind
Inquisitors and priests enforced
Myths now left behind

Fool and prophet, Queen and King
Struggled to inject
By force into common learning
Thoughts politically correct

Death could be the penalty
Of one who dared reject
Decrees that superstition ruled
Were politically correct

Martyrs to truth bought with blood
The right to disagree
And colleges became temples for
Minds that would be free

Ideas were tested by debate
Experiment and proof
There were no orthodox beliefs
Beneath the college roof

From the clash of diverse views
Was born a search for truth
Where dogma dared not circumscribe
The questionings of youth

Now, of a sudden, there appears
In colleges of a free land
The bigotry of thought control
Exhumed from ancient land

It matters not the end or means
That seek to compromise
Freedom to talk and to believe
In educate they are lies

To disagree with anything
To defend a point of view
Is intellectual freedom
And what unslaved people do

If with some tyrannies of thought
A college makes connection
Then there must come within those halls
A political correction.

Edwin Kagin

Last updated: 9 January 2005